Office market

In addition, also large properties were rented such as 12,200 square meters by the Technical Police Services and 3,850 square meters by the City of Duisburg with its Health Office. Further, Schauinsland Reisen started with the new construction of about 3,450 square meters in 2010. After completion, the company will move into the building as owner-occupant.

The year 2010 was characterized by strong mood swings and turnover fluctuations.  In the first quarter of the previous year, the demand was still extremely restrained due to the economic crisis. But in particular the large building projects creating completely new office spaces gave good reason for an optimistic feeling. This refers to Landesarchiv (the National Archive), the Police of North Rhine-Westphalia and Schauinsland Reisen. Another impulse was given by the new Health Center at the Marientor Carree in December 2010.   

Tough competition for major investments
In 2010, the Business Development Center of Duisburg increasingly received inquiries from larger companies in the service sector. The central location makes Duisburg attractive for companies with a high number of employees and large office space requirement. At the moment, however, a short-term offer is not available in this segment.

will also in future be successful with further investments, the more because major building operations have already started. The upgrading of the railway station and the A 59 motorway running through up to Düsseldorf, the state capital, from 2011 will provide a quality of utilization especially the office market will in the long run benefit from. In this respect, the Business Development Center is optimistic that the occupancy rate of the past two years will again be achieved in the future.

In the long term, new office buildings will have a vital importance. This is true all the more in the light of the low vacancy rate mentioned before. New office buildings are the key to a successful settlement of new occupiers. Presently, inquiring companies often have no sufficient choice of potential areas. The aim is to encourage investments in new office buildings. To achieve this, Duisburg will be present at the big commercial property fair MIPIM in Cannes and at Expo Real in Munich in 2011.